All too often we go through our lives spending a little here, a little there. We make these purchases automatically because they can be so small and so routine that we forget we even make it. A lot of these things are habits, like smoking, or they’re part of our daily routine, like a cup of coffee in the morning. In this video, I talk about how you should take a look at all those small purchases because over time they can accumulate into something bigger.

I also want to thank the fine folks at Intuit and TurboTax for supporting Bargaineering and sponsoring this video. With the end of the year coming, you’re bound to see a lot of tax related articles everywhere as people give advice on what you should do before the end of the year, so it’s fitting that TurboTax is the inaugural sponsor of these videos. If you’re on Twitter, I invite you to follow @TurboTax for more information on tax and product news straight from the experts.

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It doesn’t take a genius to know that compound interest is a pretty remarkable thing. When your interest earns interest… and then earns some more, it can make for some large numbers over a long period of time. That part isn’t so difficult to understand even though plenty of people have written about it.

So why did I make a video about the “true power” of compound interest? Watch.

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My wife and I recently returned from the most amazing trip to Europe. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime, whirlwind trips where you have a ridiculous amount of fun, meet all manner of interesting people, and come back more cultured, educated, and open-minded than you ever expected.

In this video, I talk about the idea of whether we are working to live or living to work and how it’s important to take a step back, from time to time, to think about our situation.

Taking calculated risks and not being afraid to fail is a hallmark of every successful person. You know this, I know this, but it’s difficult to translate that into our every day life. Sure, we hear stories about Bill Gates dropping out of Harvard to start Microsoft, but how does that isn’t helpful to the everyman or woman working their 9-to-5 job.

How about this analogy, one that I read from Larry Chiang, author for a forthcoming book What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School:

If you’re not crashing and burning twice a year, maybe you’re not reaching high enough. Similarly, if you’re not getting towed twice a year, maybe you’re not parking aggressively enough.

So many times we’re too afraid to fail and so we don’t make that leap. Don’t let fear make decisions for you.

Stimulus packages have become all the rage the last year! $7500 first time homebuyer loan, $8000 first time homebuyer credit, Making Home Affordable, $250 Social Security stimulus checks, Making Work Pay, … the list goes on.

I’m sure you’re upset… but watch this quick video and I think you might feel a little better about it.

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Today’s video is about the Luhn Algorithm, a simple mathematical algorithm that you can use to verify the correctness of ID numbers that conform to it. Credit cards are the most common example and that’s what I talk about today.

Sorry about the shadow, I started using some new lights and I’ll have to work on the shadows in the future. But there’s more light right?

You can read more about the Luhn Algorithm at Wikipedia and here is the aforementioned 50 Fun Facts about Credit Cards post.

Here’s a little video discussing the ins and outs of envelope budgeting, how it’s done (at a basic level), why you might want to consider it, and my thoughts on its effectiveness. I’m by no means an expert on envelope budgeting, but I do understand the basics, so I invite those of you who do use this on a regular basis to chime in with your thoughts!

Don’t you hate it when something breaks before it’s “supposed” to? You spent hours researching the best product for the job, the one with the best features, the longest life, and it has the nerve to break down before it’s supposed to? Well, it happens to us all and the hardest decision to make is whether it’s worth fixing or whether you should just pitch it.

What’s the rule of thumb you usually use in determining whether you should repair or replace something that’s broken before its expected “useful” life?

This latest Bargaineering.com video features some intro music (yay! probably won’t keep it for too long but I wanted to experiment a little with it) and a discussion on net worth. I briefly discuss how I calculate our net worth, how often we track it, and the true value in doing the exercise. As you probably expected, based on the title, the value isn’t in the number you get.

Please let me know what you think! (especially about the music and if you have any alternatives, podcast safe please, you think would work well)

I talked about how long we were keeping financial documents in the last Bargaineering VideoCast and in it I alluded to this video, which I recorded immediately afterwards. This video is about our financial snatchfile, a red accordion file folder that contains all of our important documents. The video didn’t do a good job of showing the accordion file folder itself so I wanted to take a photograph, which are included after the video.